


Humans Don't

by Underlander413



Category: Homestuck
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-22
Updated: 2017-04-22
Packaged: 2018-10-22 18:42:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,101
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10702857
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Underlander413/pseuds/Underlander413
Summary: There were a lot of things different about Jane Crocker's Mother. When her brother left, a lot of those things started to stand out.





	Humans Don't

Jane Crocker sighed, her head resting on her hand. Her brother, Jake, had run away only a week ago, but it felt much longer to the young girl. Without her best friend around, she was lonely and bored. While she tried to think of things to do for the day, her mother set her breakfast in front of her. Jane looked up. 

"Mom," she started, tilting her head to the side. "are your horns... real?" Even as she asked it, Jane thought the question was a bit silly. Of course they weren't real. Humans don't have horns. But if they weren't real, why did Jane never see her mother without them on? 

"Don't be glubbin ridiculous, course they ain't reel," the woman said, sitting across from her daughter. 

"Then why don't you ever take them off?" Jane asked. 

"Secret. Why's it matter?" She asked, although it didn't sound like she really wanted an answer. 

"...No reason, never mind," the girl said after a moment. 

"Good, now eat." 

*** 

It had been a month since Jake had run away, and Jane was starting to give up hope that he would come back. 

"Hey mom, I'm home," she said, walking to the kitchen to see her mother doing some baking. 

"Hey kid. Any homework?" She asked, stirring some batter. 

"No, not today," Jane replied, pouring herself a drink. "I do have a question for you, though." Her mother hummed in response, so Jane went on. "Why is your skin gray?" 

"It's paint," the woman said. 

"But it never comes off..." Jane continued. Could her skin truly be gray? Humans don't have gray skin, right?

"Yeah, so?" She asked. 

"Well, when the kids at school get paint on their hands in art, it usually comes off as soon as they wash their hands..." 

"Jane," her mother said. 

"Yes?" 

"I don't think that it would reelly matter if my skin were gray, but it ain't, so quit askin." 

"Yes, ma'am..." 

*** 

It had been a couple of years since Jake had ran away, and he was starting to become famous. Jane had a newspaper or two stashed in her room with him on the cover. She wondered if she would ever see him again. She was at least glad that he was happy, unlike her. Their mother had started teaching Jane how to bake, and although she didn't dislike baking itself, she preferred pranking and such. She also didn't like spending so much time around her mother. 

"Where are the Sand-Aids?" The woman asked one day, entering the kitchen as Jane stirred some batter. 

"You mean the Band-Aids?" Jane asked, raising an eyebrow. 

"Yeah, those." 

"I think they're-" Jane started, but stopped as she turned around to look at her mother. Jane never had no memory of ever seeing her mother bleed, and now that she was seeing it happen, she couldn't believe her eyes. It's not that Jane thought she couldn't bleed. Everyone had blood, her mother included. No, the girl's surprise was due to something else. Humans don't bleed pink. 

Sometimes people would _blush_ pink, but what Jane was seeing was fuchsia blood coming out of her mother's arm. 

"P-pink!" Jane exclaimed. "Your blood is pink!" 

"No it ain't, it just got mixed with something else," the woman said. 

"But it...it...!" Jane stuttered. 

"Just tell me where the Sand-Aids are." 

Jane pointed to a cabinet, not trusting herself to speak. Her mother opened it and took out a small box. 

"Thanks, kid. Get back to bakin," she said, and she left the room. 

*** 

It had been a decade since Jake had ran away, and he was very famous. Jane, on the other hand, had decided to gain baking skill and learn her mother's secrets, hoping to one day surpass and somehow expose her. 

The young woman was sitting at the table, waiting for a timer to go off, when her mother walked in, scratching behind her ear. 

Jane had only seen her mother with her hair out of the way of her ears a few times, and even then she either had something else blocking them from view, or it was to short of a time for her to get a clear look. "Mom, why do your ears look like that?" 

"Like what?" She asked, letting her hair block her ears once more. 

Were they really such a strange shape? Did Jane see them wrong? She could've sworn her mother had fins where her ears should've been, but that couldn't be true. Humans don't have fins. Even as she thought this, Jane started speaking again. "Like...fins." 

"You probably just saw them wrong. My hand was in the way." 

"But... I could've sworn..." Jane said, trailing off. 

"It doesn't matter, kid. If ya keep focusing on these things so much, your gonna miss your timer and burn your cookies." 

Jane looked down at the table. "You're right. Sorry mom." 

"Just stop askin this kinda stuff." 

*** 

It had been several decades since Jake had run away, and Jane was happy. The Batterwitch, as she had come to know her mother as, had disappeared just before her thirtieth birthday. She had written Jake into her will instead of her, but Jane was okay with that. She still loved to bake in her free time, but she preferred running her small prank store. Sometimes she wondered what had happened to her "mother", but decided that she probably just went back to her home planet, since Jane had discovered the Batterwitch was an alien, among some other secrets she had uncovered. 

Jane never saw Jake again, but that was okay. She had met a nice man shortly after the Batterwitch had disappeared, and they ended up getting married and having a son together. She had also heard that Jake had found someone and had a couple kids, so he must be happy, and she was glad. Jane's husband had passed a few years prior, but she would see him again soon. She remember a tale the Batterwitch had told her, about how she and Jake were destined to get married and have a pair of world saving children. The marriage part may have been a bit off, but she had learned that the second half was true. She looked out the window of her shop and saw that their son would, in fact, be arriving very soon. 

In her final moments, Jane took a second to think about the situation. Most humans didn't have world saving children with a man they weren't married to and hadn't seen since they were both thirteen. 

Jane, however, was not "most humans".


End file.
